TYBCom re-exam: Students distracted by hoax messages

A day before the re-exam for a final year bachelor in commerce paper on Tuesday, many students appeared less concerned about studying and more occupied with rumours of another possible paper leak. Some were still attempting to get the university to cancel the re-exam.

More than 80,000 students will take the re-exam.

Last week, the University of Mumbai had announced a re-exam for the marketing and human resource management, which had leaked at a Bhiwandi College a day before students appeared for it on March 28.

On Tuesday, several text messages were doing the rounds. One SMS contained leaked questions and another cited a fake university circular stating that the re-exam was cancelled.

“There won’t be a re-exam because the university has arrived at the decision that re-exams will be doing injustice to those students who studied for the paper and gave it honestly,” stated the SMS.

University officials dismissed the messages. “These are all unwanted rumours,” said TP Madhu Nair, dean of the commerce faculty. “I am very confident that the exam will be conducted smoothly.”

The university also issued a press note on Tuesday evening signed by the controller of examinations S Suryavanshi stating that the rumours were baseless and students should ignore them.

Several students have been lobbying to have the re-exam cancelled, with mass protests, delegations to officials and even a petition in the Bombay high court. All day on Tuesday, a group of students protested at Azad Maidan. The group even tried to meet the governor and chief minister.

But then late on Tuesday evening, the reality dawned on them. “We tried a lot, but it was not possible so we have decided to study for the re-exam now,” said Dhaval Vora, 20, a student who was met vice chancellor Rajan Welukar on Monday.